Hinge

ABSTRACT

A power operated or counterbalance spring type hinge mechanism is provided wherein movement of the connected closure element is effected from the open to the closed position and vice versa by means of three links which co-act in close coupled relationship to reduce to a minimum the space requirements of the hinge structure.

United States Patent 1191 Adamski [111 3,747,271 July 24, 1973 HINGE [76] Inventor: Raymond Adamslti, 44 19 Buckingham Rd., Royal Oak, Mich.

48072 [22] Filed: Apr. 2, 1971 211 App]. N0 .2 130,595

1521' u.s.c1 49/340, 49/344, 49/345, 49/346, 49/386 5 1 16. c1... ..1':os11s/04 [58] Field 61 Search 49/339, 340, 344-346, 49/248, 246, 3 6, 280; 160/188 [56} References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,700,569 1/1955 Koefoed 49/340 X Primary ExaminerJ. Karl Bell Att0mey-St0well & Stowell [57] ABSTRACT A power operated or counterbalance spring type hinge mechanism is provided wherein movement of the connected closure element is effected from the open to the closed position andvice versa by means of three links which co-act in close coupled relationship toreduce to a minimum the space requirements of the hinge structure.

3 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures PATENIEB Jm 2 4 ms SHEU 2 0F 5 mm 5 N1 ATTORNE Y PATENTEUJULPMW 3.741. 211

sum 3 [1F 5 FIG. 6

INVENTOR AYMOND ADAMSK/ BY ,J/Ma, mwz/ ATTORNEY Pmemw mzwu iiiiii I SHEET '4 0F 5 RAYMOND ADAMS/(l BY cLlv- 1742M ATTORNEY HINGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The design of automobiles has customarily included.

sired. Thus, the internal mechanisms, storage, and other areas are protected from weather and .view. In addition, the automobile body surface contours are generally uninterruptedproviding a more visually aesthetic appearance.

Earliest means of closing body openings included fabric coversattached with snap, screw and other type fasteners which allowed complete removal of the cover. Also used were rigid covers, doors, or lids, generally constructedof the same material as. the automobile body, which were attached permanently by means of single pivot hinges to the body but which would' allow the covers, etc., to move thus providing access to the particular areas within. The hinges were attached on 'the exterior of the body for sake of simplicityand to allow space for sealing: elements around the body opening.

-As economic, aesthetic, and design conditions evolved, the soft fabric completely removable covers and the rigid covers, lids, and doors with externally mounted hinges became undesirable and in some instances, impractical.

Rigid doors, lids and covers eventually were provided with hingingmechanisms contained'within the confines of the automobile body surface.

Depending upon the particular application, single pivot'hinges and multiple-link hinges were and are still employed. This arrangement eliminates the unsightly and sometimes impractical hinges from the body surface. However, it also results in design problems within the automobile body caused by space consuming linkage parts, clearances with other necessary elements, and imprecise positioning of the attendant cover or lid. Further, the desired contours of the body surface were often severely restricted by limitations of prior hinging mechanism movements.

ln automobiles, the multiple-link, spring counterbalanced hinge mechanism has generally been favored for attaching the engine compartment lid to the vehicle body. Usually, two symmetrically opposite mechanisms are located near but forward of the rearward edge of the hood and spaced toward its sidewise edges. A separate latch mechanism is located in the body and engages suitable provisions on the forward end of the hood so as to secure the lid closed during vehicle operaged within the engine compartment, and the linkage movements. are such that the. hinges must. be placed;

generally forward of the rear edge of the hood; thus these mechanisms restrict physical access to the compartment. Further, the movements dictate that the rear edge of the hood move forward across the body opening as the hood. is opened again causing. access in that area to be limited. Still another disadvantage is that the hood may be opened to a position'onlyapproximately 45 to its closed position thereby again restricting access.

Present multiple-link hinge mechanisms rely heavily onthe counterbalance spring to. pull the hinged edge of the hood into its proper closed position. This is especially true in designs containing a minimum of parts and often results in incompletely and/or difficult to close hoods. Since automobile hoods are operated manually by applying force to the end opposite the hinges, proper positioning of the hinge end must be accomplished by the hinge by means of the forces transmitted from the opposite end. Present day hinge mechanisms fail to accomplish this positioning function properly without assistance from an excessively large and. costly counterbalance spring, and even then, thevertical' positioning is not easily achieved so that often the lid and surrounding, body surfaces are. not acontinuum.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION To improve upon present designs for automobile hood hinges and more. generally to improve upon the means of attaching, opening, and. closing rigid covers, lids, and doors of more diverse automobile body openings, and even more generally to provide an improved multiple-link hinging mechanism for doors, covers, and lids in non-related applications, there is provided mechanism that eliminates the undesirable features of prior art designs as noted herein but which retains and increases the number of desirable and necessary features. Specifically, it is an object to provide hinge means for a door, lid, or cover that will open a maximum amount to provide greatest access to the space beneath it or within the area enclosed.

Another object is to provide hinging mechanism requiring aminimum of space when the cover, etc., is in either its open or closed position so that access into the related normally enclosed area is not hindered by hinge parts and so that such hinge parts do not require excessive space within that area.

Another object is to provide such improved hinging mechanism that will control the related cover, etc., movement from closed to open positions and reverse so that no part of the surrounding surface or structure associated with the normallyvenclosed area is infringed upon to the detriment of such. related parts.

A further object is to provide hinging mechanism which may include a spring counterbalance means whereby the mechanism is capable of maintaining the attached cover, lid, or door in a fully opened position and which will supply some beneficial force to aid manual operation.

Another object is to provide such improved hinging mechanism that can be operated by a remotely controlled power actuator of minimum physical size and space requirement.

A further object is to provide hinge means wherein power and manually operated designs of the hinging mechanism are essentially the same.

The above features and more are embodied in a new and improved multiple-link hinge mechanism which generally comprises a hinge assembly comprising first and second bracket members, a guide link, a rocker link and a control link, pivot pins connecting one end of the guide link to the first brakcet member and slidably and pivotally connecting the other end thereof to the second bracket member, pivot pins connecting one end of the rocker link to the second bracket member and the other end to one end of the control link, a further pivot pin connecting the rocker link, intermediate its ends to the guide link and a pivot pin connecting the free end of the control link to the first bracket member.

The specific description of this invention illustrates its use as an automotive hood hinge; however, this should not be construed to be the sole suitable function, as there are other automotive and non-automotive hinging applications for which it is equally suited and conceivably even more uses in other fields of engineering design. The invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, FIGS. 1 through 12.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automotive body showing the hood (engine compartment lid) and trunk lid in the partially opened positions;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of a hinge of the invention as envisioned with a linear power actuator, in its closed position;

FIG. 3 is a section on line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section on line 4--4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a section on line 55 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the hinge mechanism shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a side elevation of the hinge shown in FIG. 2 when extension of the actuator has partially raised the lid;

FIG. 8 is a side elevation of the hinge of the invention wherein the power actuator has extended fully to place the lid in its open-most position;

FIG. 9 is a side elevation of the hinge mechanism in which a linearly acting counterbalance spring has been employed rather than the power actuator;

FIG. 10 is a section on line 10-10 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a secton on line 11-ll of FIG. 9; and

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the hinge of the invention as portrayed in FIG. 9.

Although it is recognized that generally there must be two identical or symmetrically opposite hinge mechanisms operating in unison, the following discussion will be restricted to one of the pair.

POWERED VERSION The general placement and exact constructional features of a powerable version of the invention are shown in FIGS. 1 through 8.

Referring to FIG. 1, the hinges generally designated 10 are placed at the inward ends of the hood 12 and lid 14 of the vehicle 16.

In general, the hinge 10 is seen to be comprised of two brackets and three link pairs as follows:

I. A body bracket 20 which is firmly bolted or otherwise attached to some member of the automobile body structure 22. The bracket 20, in plan, is U- shaped as shown in FIG. 6 and carries two pins, 24 and 26 which allow the pivotal attachment respectively of two pairs of links 28a, 28b and 30a and 30b.

2. A lid bracket 32 which in cross section is generally U-shaped as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 and is securely bolted or otherwise fastened to the hood 12. Near one end 31 of the bracket 32 is a pin 34 for the pivotal attachment of a pair of links 36a and 36b while near the other end 33 is a pin 38 allowing the pivotal attachment of end 40 of a linear actuator 42. Both pins 34 and 38 span the bracket 32 side to side thus providing rigid straddle attachments. Between these pins 34 and 38 but nearer the end 33 of the bracket 32 are slots 46a and 46b as indicated in, for example, FIGS. 2 and 4 providing for the both slidable and pivotal connection of the ends 50 of the pair of links 28a and 28b which are otherwise connected to pin 24 in the body bracket 20.

3. The pair of guide links 28a and 28b as set forth in (1) hereof are pivotally attached at one of their ends to the body bracket 20 by pin 24 and attached both pivotally and slidably at their other ends to the lid bracket 32 by pins 54a and 54b. Intermediate their ends, the guide links 28a and 28b carry and are joined by a pin 56 as shown in FIG. 3 which in turn pivotally connects to them the pair of rocker links 36a and 36b.

4. The rocker links 36a and 36b, connected intermediate their ends to and carried between the guide links 28a and 28b, are both pivotally connected at one end by means of a pin 34 to the end 31 of the lid bracket 32. At their opposite ends, the rocker links 36a and 36b are pivotally connected to links 30a and 30b by pin 35. The three pinned connections are shown in FIG. 5.

The invention as described above is essentially complete. To provide powered operation, however, the linearly extensible/retractable actuator 42 or hydraulic ram is pivotally connected at its one end 40 to the lid bracket 32 by means of pin 38 and is also connected at its other end 60 by means of a pin 62 to the pair of rocker links 36a and 36b. The necessary hydraulic fluid carrying tubes 64 and 66 to the actuator, being flexible, are routed between the control links 30a and 30b and over the pin 26 to a remotely controlled hydraulic fluid pump (not shown), so that the whole hinge mechanism and actuator assembly present a compact, low-profile unit.

In the plan view, FIG. 6, the guide links 280 and 28b are shown bent inward toward each other in the area of the pin 56. The purpose of such bends is to minimize the lengths of pins 56 and 62 and to allow pin 62 to float yet remain trapped by the flat areas of the guide links 28a and 28b immediately surrounding pin 56. A partially circular notch 68 in the edge of guide link 28a directly below pin 56, see FIGS. 2 and 7, allows the insertion or removal of pin 62 only when the hinge is in the position shown in FIG. 7, because then the centers of the notch 68 and pin 62 coincide.

MANUAL VERSION The manually operated version of this invention shown in FIGS. 9 through 12 is quite similar to the power actuated design discussed above. In fact, the geometry of movement is precisely identical. Most notable is the deletion of the power actuator 42 and the ad dition of a linearly acting counter-balance spring 70 between pins 24' and 35', and the omission of one link of the pair of links 26a b and 36a b. In view of the similarities between the two forms of the invention, like parts of the manual version of the improved hinge are provided with primed reference characters corresponding to the reference characters employed in the description of the powered version of the device.

In the counterbalance spring form of the invention of the three link means the control links 300' and 30b are the only paired links so that the counterbalance spring 70 will not cause excessive cantilever force on the pin 35'.

OPERATION POWERED VERSION When the lid or the like is to be opened, hydraulic fluid is supplied to the port adjacent end 40 of the actuator 42 via the attached conduit 66 at sufficient pressure to extend the actuator. Thus, the actuator 42 imposes a force on the lid bracket 32 through pin 38 tending to rotate the bracket and attached lid 12 counterclockwise about pin 34. Such rotation is resisted, however, by the pins 54a.and 54b residing in the slots 46a and 46b and affixed to the guide links 28a and 28b. Therefore, the guide links are urged upwardly in a pivotal movement about pin 24. I

In addition, the same actuator force tends to push the lid bracket 32 forward thus generally pulling the upper ends of the rocker links 360 and 36b, via pin 34, in the same direction. This results in a tendency for the rocker links 36a and 36b to rotate clockwise about their pivotal connection by pin 56 to the guide links 280 and 28b, a motion resisted by the control links 300 and 30b via their connection at pin 35.

Simultaneous with all of the above, the actuator 42 imposes an equal but oppositely directed force on the rocker links 36a and 36b via the pin 62. This force, by virtue of its direction with respect to the geometric layout of the various links, tends to rotate the control links 30a and 30b via pin 35 counterclockwise about their pivotal attachment by pin 26 to the body bracket 20. The rotational tendency is in turn transmitted via the rocker links and appropriate pinned connections to the guide links 28a and 28b resulting in a counterclockwise rotation of the guide links about their connection, pin 24, to the body bracket 20. Thus, within the hinge mechanism itself are generated the forces necessary to open it. As the actuator 42 extends, the guide and control links rotate counterclockwise about pins 24 and 26, respectively, while the rocker links 36a and 36b rotate clockwise about their pivotal connection to the guide links by pin 56.

As the actuator 42 continues extending, under influence of the supplied hydraulic fluid, the various links continue to rotate in the directions noted until the lid is raised and positioned as shown in FIG. 7. It is to be observed here that the rearward edge of the lid is essentially directly above its position when the lid is closed and has therefore encroached neither upon the space above the surrounding body surface nor above the opening itself. It is also evident that the hinge components as well as the actuator have remained close to the lid which is at an angle approximately that normally achieved by other hinge mechanisms. None of these components are appreciably protruding down into the opening or restircting access from the side.

Even more extension of the actuator forces the hinge mechanism and lid to the fully open position shown in FIG. 8. Further motion is prohibited because the pins 54a and 54b are stopped at the opposite ends of the slots 46a and 46b in the lid bracket 32. The hinge mechanism is then a rigid member from the body bracket 20 to the lid.

In FIG. 8, the lid 12 is oriented as approximately ninety degrees to its closed position shown in FIG. 2. The rearward edge of the lid is directly above its normal closed position so that it has not encroached upon the space above the surrounding body surface nor above the opening, and the hinge mechanism itself does not physically hinder access into the body compartment.

To lower or close the lid, hydraulic fluid is admitted to the opposite port in the actuator 42 and is allowed to exhaust from the original inlet port to the pump reservoir (not shown). The hinge mechanism and lid re trace the original path until the lid is once again closed as shown in FIG. 2.

MANUAL VERSION The lid is raised manually by application of a generally upward force preferably at or near its edge 13. This force is assisted by the tension force of the counterbalance spring 70 which continually pulls pin toward pin 24, thus inducing counterclockwise rotation of the control and guide links. As the lid moves generally upward and in the counterclockwise direction within the constraints of the rigid links, the applied force follows a generally circular path about the body bracket 20' until the lid is in fully open position. The counterbalance spring force is intended to be sufficient to maintain the lid fully open in which position most of the lid weight is carried by the links themselves.

To close the lid, a relatively small force is applied anywhere above pin 34 in a clockwise direction until the lid begins to move. Then, a restraining force in the opposite direction is imposed as the weight of the lid provides its own closing force.

From the preceding description of preferred embodiments of this invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention fulfills the aims and objectives set forth. It should also be apparent that variations in the attachments of actuating devices are permissible within the scope of this invention. It should be further apparent that various modifications may be made in the form of the structures forming this invention.

I claim:

I. A hinge assembly comprising first and second bracket members, a guide link, a rocker link and a conpin connecting the rocker link, intermediate its ends to the guide link and a pivot pin connecting the other end of the control link to the first bracket member, including a linear actuator, a pivot pin connecting one end of the linear actuator to the second bracket and a further pivot pin connecting the other end of the linear actuatween the rocker link and the guide link and the control tor to the rocker link. link.

2. The invention defined in claim 1, wherein the piv- 3. The invention defined in claim 1, wherein the linotal connection between the linear actuator and the ear actuator comprises a hydraulic ram. rocker link lies between the pivotal connections be- 

1. A hinge assembly comprising first and second bracket members, a guide link, a rocker link and a control link, pivot pins connecting one end of the guide link to the first bracket member and slidably and pivotally connecting the other end thereof to the second bracket member, pivot pins connecting one end of the rocker link to the second bracket member and the other end to one end of the control link, a further pivot pin connecting the rocker link, intermediate its ends to the guide link and a pivot pin connecting the other end of the control link to the first bracket member, including a linear actuator, a pivot pin connecting one end of the linear actuator to the second bracket and a further pivot pin connecting the other end of the linear actuator to the rocker link.
 2. The invention defined in claim 1, wherein the pivotal connection between the linear actuator and the rocker link lies between the pivotal connections between the rocker link and the guide link and the control link.
 3. The invention defined in claim 1, wherein the linear actuator comprises a hydraulic ram. 